


Your Heartbeat for Mine

by DragonWyrd316



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Death, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 13:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18011852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonWyrd316/pseuds/DragonWyrd316
Summary: The sound of a heartbeat can soothe and excite.  What happens when the sound you love so much stops?





	Your Heartbeat for Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story about my U'sanja Tia (Sanja Arisato after the bonding), a Seeker of the Sun, and his husband Zetsumei Arisato (played by a friend of mine in FFXIV), a Keeper of the Moon miqo'te, after they've been together for many years. It was something that came to mind after we touched on a really sad "what if" scenario. Zetsumei belongs to @zetsumei.arisato.ff14 on Instagram. You can follow my Seeker there as well @usanja.ffxiv

_“Life isn't measured in minutes, but in heartbeats.”_

_~Joan Lowery Nixon_

 

The sun had set on another beautiful day.  Sanja curled up against Zetsumei as the two miqo’te sat out on the beach in front of their medium sized house in Shirogane. It was something they’d done almost nightly, weather permitting, since they’d retired from their lives of adventuring many years prior.  The years had aged them like a fine wine - they still caught the eyes of men and women both, even though they were well into their seventies. Zetsu’s hair had faded into a pure white, while his had gone silver, though his teal streaks still remained stubborn and were just as bright as they were when he’d met his mate fifty years earlier.  Laugh lines were noticeable at the corners of their eyes, and they looked a good twenty years or so younger than they were due to still keeping a healthy and active lifestyle.

Sanja Arisato.  Even so many years later, it still made him smile.  Then again after he’d lost his first fiance, he never thought to find love again, let alone with someone who understood him the way Zetsumei did.  The male who had become his mate… he truly felt as if the kami had blessed them. Their love had withstood the test of time. They’d even taken in a pair of siblings left orphaned by the occupation in Doma.  Speaking of…

“We should probably think of heading off to bed soon,” Zetsu’s voice rumbled under his cheek where it lay on his mate’s chest, interrupting his thoughts.  “We have the family breakfast in the morning.”

“Mmm, true.  Kenshi is a bit of a stickler for time, isn’t he?” Sanja chuckled.  “Wouldn’t do for us to oversleep.” Getting up, he brushed the sand off his shorts then reached a hand down to the Keeper, helping him to stand.  The moment his mate was up, he found himself wrapped up in a tight embrace within Zetsumei’s arms, and a gentle kiss pressed to his lips. 

“I couldn’t help it,” the crimson orbs of his husband’s eyes twinkled mischievously in the night sky, earning a laugh from Sanja.

“It’s not as if you’ll hear a complaint from me,” Sanja quipped back as he removed himself from Zetsu’s embrace and walked towards the front door, his tail swishing playfully over what was still, surprisingly, a quite round ass.

“If I wasn’t tired and we didn’t have plans for the morning…” he heard his husband growl.  Flashing the Keeper a grin, he stepped inside their home and waited until he heard his love lock up before heading up the stairs to their bedroom.  Once Zetsumei had stepped inside, he walked over and helped him disrobe, running his hands lovingly over the skin that each removed piece of clothing bared.  Kneading the muscles gently, he gave his mate an impromptu shoulder massage, brushing his lips lovingly on the warm skin of the back of his neck. His husband treated him like a prince every day of their relationship and even more so since the bonding ceremony, so he tried to show his love how much he cherished him with small things like this.  Easing his aches and pains after a long day with soothing massages, or drawing a hot bath infused with oil to help loosen up tight muscles… anything he could do to make Zetsu happy, he would. This man, and their children, were his world. Wrapping his arms around his mate from behind, he rested his cheek on Zetsu’s shoulder and was rewarded by a gentle nuzzle and a smile.

“Come on babe, let’s get some sleep,” Zetsu said, stepping out of Sanja’s embrace and walking over to the bed.  Following his husband, Sanja stripped off his clothes and threw them in the nearby laundry basket before joining him under the covers.  Taking up his usual position on his love’s left side, he rested his head over the male’s heart, his heartbeat doing what it always did - calming and soothing him from the day’s anxieties.  Where some people needed to take their frustrations out on training dummies in order to relax, all he needed was the steady beat of his husband’s heart in his ear. Smiling when he felt his love’s lips brush against his forehead, he lifted his head for a moment for their goodnight kiss before settling down.

“Sweet dreams, love.  See you in the morning,” he murmured before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Something was wrong.  Sanja sat straight up in bed, his heart jackhammering in his chest.  Something was really wrong. He could feel a cold sweat trickle down his spine.  Turning to his husband’s sleeping form, about to wake him to have a second pair of eyes and ears for investigating, he realized that was what was wrong.  His mate’s chest no longer rose and fell. He no longer breathed. Quickly placing his cheek over his love’s heart, it dawned on him that was what woke him up.  The sound that he loved so much, that soothed him through nightmares, through anxieties that only Zetsu would understand… it was gone.

“No.  No, no, no, no, no…” he whispered into the dark room.  “I’m not ready. I can’t lose you yet…” A sob tore from his chest and he keened out his despair, rocking back and forth from where he sat on the bed next to his mate.  Reaching out a shaking hand, he ran his fingers through the soft locks of Zetsumei’s hair, his thumb brushing lovingly over the cheekbones of the face he loved so much. Leaning down, his breath shaking in and out of him, he placed trembling lips first on the lids of eyes that would never open again, then his cheeks, and lastly lips that would never again draw breath.

“Kami willing, love, you will see me soon,” he choked out.  “Your heartbeat for mine, and mine for yours.” Raising his eyes to the heavens beyond the ceiling above, he prayed to the guardian spirits to whisk his spirit away to follow on the heels of his love.  He didn’t want Zetsu to be alone for too long. Laying back down against the still warm body of his husband, he closed his eyes and soon, too, his heart ceased to beat and his spirit was escorted by the kami to rest at his husband’s side.

* * *

“Kami forfend, where are those two?” Kenshi griped as he and his brother Sora stepped into the house.  “They’re usually not late like this and if they had plans, they’d have let us know,” the older of the two hyur sighed.  

The younger of the two quietly made his way upstairs while his brother bitched and moaned down below, and what he saw dropped him to his knees while also having him let out a bit of a watery laugh.  “You two never could stand being away from the other for too long, could you?” he whispered, getting up to walk over to the two men and checking their pulses, even though he knew he would find none. “And Kenshi’s going to have to get over the slight of you two missing his breakfast get together just this once,” he sniffled, wiping his hands over his eyes.

“Kenshi’s what now?” his brother asked from the doorway.

“They won’t be coming, brother…” Sora replied, his voice hushed.  

“Kami, no…” Kenshi’s voice was noticeably choking up as he realized what Sora meant.  Approaching the bed, he stood beside his brother and reached up to grip the younger man’s shoulder hard.  “Shit…”

“Yeah,” Sora whispered.  “Let’s go outside and start calling everyone and get someone here who can help us take care of them.  At least they went together, yeah? Neither suffered without the other too long.”

“At least there’s that…” Kenshi’s voice was hoarse.  The two brothers walked over and paid their respects in their own way to the two men who had been fathers to them, who had taken them in when others would not, who had shown them love and had never let them want for affection.  On their way out, they tended to the kami shrine inside the bedroom, letting the incense burn in tribute, before leaving.

 

 

* * *

(To see a picture of Sanja and Zetsumei, you can head on over to this link: [Sanja and Zetsu](https://imgur.com/jRnLBYW))

 


End file.
